1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to modular refrigeration systems and relates particularly to such refrigeration systems for use in air conditioning installations. The invention discloses a unique outboard arrangement of the evaporator and condenser heat exchangers for facilitating removal and maintenance of those elements.
Air conditioning installations for modern buildings, such as large office structures, shopping complexes, warehouses and the like, conventionally comprise air treatment units to which water or other heat exchange fluid is pumped whereby air is cooled (in summer) or heated (in winter) and circulated to the areas to be conditioned. The heat exchange fluid for cooling is generally circulated through an evaporator/chiller of a refrigeration system which removes heat from the fluid. The heat is given up to a second heat exchange fluid which circulates passed the condenser of the refrigeration system. The second heat exchange fluid may also comprise water or other liquid or may comprise air in an air cooled or evaporative cooler system. Such systems may also be designed to operate on reverse cycle and act as heat pumps to heat the air to be conditioned. The refrigeration system will, of course, have cooling/heating capacity appropriate to the capacity of the air conditioning installation. Alternatively, the system may be arranged as a dedicated heat recovery system, whereby the system will be sized to maximize the heat recovery requirement.
For high capacity installations, as may be incorporated in office and apartment complexes, a refrigeration system of high output is necessary to be able to handle the maximum load expected. In practice, such high output refrigeration systems tend to be more prone to breakdown and failure than do lower output refrigeration units. Such breakdowns and failures often leave the building in which the system is installed without any air conditioning until the breakdown or failure is remedied. In high capacity systems, breakdowns and failures can often take days and, sometimes, weeks to repair.
Further, in the design and construction of many modern building structures, provision is made for the expansion of the building structure, that is, the building is constructed in a number of stages spread over a period of time. Because of the difficulty in expanding a predesigned air conditioning system, it is generally necessary to design and install the system to have the air conditioning capacity for the completed building structure. This means, therefore, that the system is running, inefficiently, at less than full load capacity until such time as all building stages are completed.
In other instances, building structures are extended after the initial design and construction, and such extensions often require the air conditioning system for the initial building structure to be completely replaced with a new system to be able to handle the load of the extended building structure. Further, in densely populated urban areas, such as New York City, transportation of a conventional single large unit may require a shutdown of traffic routes during transportation of the unit to its installation location. Shutdowns are extremely difficult to arrange and result in extremely high costs. These problems are completely avoided by the present invention.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, the condensers for refrigeration units have been connected in series as are the water circuits of the evaporator/chillers thus requiring each refrigeration unit to have individual design criteria in accordance with the variation in temperature of the water circulating through the individual, series connected condensers and evaporator/chillers.
It is desirable to provide an improved refrigeration system which obviates the disadvantages of the known systems.
It is also desirable to provide an improved refrigeration system which allows the design and construction of an air conditioning system for a building or like structure, which air conditioning system is less prone to breakdown and failure than known air conditioning systems.
It is also desirable to provide an improved refrigeration system particularly for air conditioning and in which a breakdown or failure of part of the refrigeration system does not prevent operation of the air conditioning plant.
It is further desirable to provide an improved air conditioning system using discrete refrigeration units which can be removed, repaired and/or replaced without major disruption of the operation of the air conditioning system.
It is a further object of the invention to provide condenser and/or evaporator heat exchangers outboard from the other component of a module, and isolatable through valving, to facilitate the removal and maintenance of these elements.